Fundraiser Update: We are excited to share some BIG NEWS! Over these last 4 months, we have watched God provide an incredible outpouring of love and support, and through generous donors, numerous side jobs, a very successful Yard Sale, and a fantastic turnout in T-Shirt sales, we are absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the amount of money that has now come in for our Adoption!! We had originally estimated that we needed $33,000-$35,000 Total for our goal, but now that we have reached the next phase in the process, we can now see that the Total amount is looking to be more around $31,000 - $33,000.
And as of today (October 7th) we have now raised…
$28,000!!!!!
We can’t believe how close we are to our big goal— and we haven’t even found out who our child will be! What sweet confirmation for this little one that God has called us to adopt. We can’t wait to share these stories with him or her one day!
The Cattle on a Thousand Hills
It was the weekend before our anniversary, and I was chomping-at-the-bit to apply to Lifeline to get things started with our Adoption, but I was waiting for Steven to feel ready…financially. It was the afternoon of May 25th when I was scrolling on Instagram and up pops an image from Lifeline Child Services:
This feels like an Anniversary gift. Isn’t God so sweet to send a little prompt and blessing all tied up with a bow… three days before our Anniversary? We knew that our time to apply was very soon. And the scholarship was just an added bonus to get us started on the right foot.
We took the following weekend to spend some time away together, to think and pray and rest and celebrate our 7 years of marriage. The weekend retreat in the mountains proved to be a much needed time for us to re-connect and have deep and meaningful conversations.
And one of the most important things we discussed during those lazy days away together was about taking the first step towards our Adoption journey. Steven, being the main provider for our family, feels the weight of our finances more than I do. He expressed to me his hesitations about applying with our Agency yet because of the huge first payment that is due within a couple of weeks of acceptance. I had absolute faith that God would provide the first amount of money that we needed and that time constraints were not a concern of His. He would honor our obedience and trust in Him as provider.
So we were driving in the mountains, discussing the realities of these concerns, and as I was sitting there in my passenger seat earnestly proclaiming God’s goodness and His desire to be our Provider to my husband, when mid-sermon I look out the window and lo and behold: there I see cattle on a hillside.
I laughed without restraint and gave him sneaky eyes and told him, “See. God owns the cattle on the hill. He’s got this!” He smiled knowingly. We went about our evening, enjoying an early dinner at a quaint restaurant in a nearby mountainside town. We took our time, and enjoyed the slow pace of the evening. We got back in the car, and made our way back down the mountain, taking the same route that we had taken on the way up. And this time around, as Steven looks out the window, the scene plays out on his side of the car. He initiates it this time, nodding toward the hillside and prophetically says to me,
“Look. They multiplied.”
And that’s exactly what had happened. Since we had passed by the first time, the few cattle had become many.
We knew in our spirits that God was speaking. And He was using a special verse in Psalms to demonstrate in our reality the nature of His heart. We knew that the journey ahead would bring many blessings, and that they would ALL flow from the hand of our Provider, the Lord our God.
And I can say- it has been an incredible experience seeing the amount of donations that have come in since June 16th, 2018— the day we made our public announcement that we are adopting!
Our first agency payment was due on Tuesday, July 3rd. We had a generous friend that offered to match any donations that came in by that date up to $1,000. When we finally reached the day that the first payment of $3,262 was due, our friend texted us saying that she had been praying for a “Double Portion” for us. Little did she know, DOUBLE of what we needed is exactly what we had received by that date! To top it all off, that night, Steven and I had a celebratory dinner together, using a gift card to one of our favorite restaurants! And on our way back home, I made him pull over the car, for what I saw could not be ignored. It was fully displayed across the dusk sky: a double rainbow! Something I had never seen in my life up to that point.
“Babe, it’s a double portion.”
Since that first agency payment, we have paid a total of $13,051.30 on all Adoption related costs. We have always had enough to pay what we have needed at each step in the process thus far, and now we sit with a balance of $15,000 to use towards the remaining (estimated) $17,500 - $20,000 worth of expenses ahead.
We have seen families give $500.
Some have sent us $1,000.
We’ve had couples donate $2,500.
There has been an individual write a check for $5,000.
We have had tons of people just buy one of our t-shirts, allowing us to make around $12 per shirt.
Then there’s the amazing people that have hired us for side work and have given us above and beyond what they should’ve paid because they knew it was going toward our adoption. Usually saying something along the lines of “Let’s bring that baby home!”
We are speechless. There is no way to describe the humbling feeling that comes over you when someone sacrificially gives to you and your growing family in such HUGE ways like this. We are seeing our own faith grow in new ways because of the ways God has used His people in these last several weeks in our lives.
Some have given from an inheritance saying, “This would honor my father's legacy to support your adoption in this way.” Others have said, “The Lord just prompted me to give this amount.” And still some have said, “It’s not much, but we want to support you guys.” As they donate tens and hundreds, some thousands.
Then there was the little girl across the street. A few weeks ago, I’m at home working in my living room when I hear the doorbell ring— but I can’t see anyone there. Until I open the door. There she stands with two little hands full of coins saying,
“Hi. This is for your baby.”
We’ve seen a community of people, our friends and family, come around us in such a beautiful way that I’ve never experienced before. I am humbled by the support and love that you have shown. Thank you for bolstering our faith in this journey, and for loving our child before you… before any of us even know who he or she is.
Thanks for following our journey so far! Here's a look at the remaining steps we have ahead...
"You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." Hebrews 10:36
"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father."
Colossians 1:9-12a
Comments
Post a Comment